Received at the Library

The Dec./Jan. 2019 issue of Internet genealogy leads with Railroad Retirement Board benefits.  If you have come up empty in the Social Security Death Index, you might be able to find an ancestor in this database maintained by the Midwest Genealogy Center.  An article on data security reminds us that we would do well to have a plan to keep our hard-won genealogy information safe from loss or tampering.  New York State genealogical resources are reviewed.  Mariner ancestors are common on the Cape, and US Customs Records can be a fruitful place to look for records about them, both at the National Archives and in private collections such as university archives; newspapers, business ledgers, and insurance records can also yield relevant information.  If you have an ancestor who was institutionalized you may find "Asylums and Family History Research" useful.  I always learn something new reviewing each magazine issue we receive, and this time it is "Métis", a people of mixed native American and European ancestry originating in Canada; research resources are suggested.  Lisa Alzo reviews Airtable as a flexible spreadsheet application to organize things like your family archive, timelines, research logs and more.

Catching up with the April-June 2018 issue of NGS magazine, it gathers a number of interesting articles under the general theme of nationality.  Topics covered:

• Enemy alien registrations during World War I
• Resources for tracing impressed American seamen
• Gold Star Mother pilgrimages of the 1930s (mothers and widows of deceased servicemen)
• Discover German families in CompGen's free databases [German SIG members should review the many resources in this article!]
• Overcoming the language barrier: the genealogical translation process
• Records of Irish dissenting churches (part 3)

Another article is a case study of success using broader search parameters.

Received at the Library

Family tree magazine (July-Aug. 2018) emphasizes how genealogy is like detective work, and in fact is being used in real cases such as identifying the Golden State Killer.  The local genealogy society in Orange County CA is partnering with the coroner's office to research relatives of people who die alone.  A professional genealogist has tracked down his sperm-donor father ("Finding connections") through DNA.  If you're a detective fiction fan, check out British author Steve Robinson's genealogy sleuth series.  A useful primer on Eastern European genealogy research gives six common obstacles and how to overcome them.  State guides for Maine and New Mexico provide a handy summary of record availability and addresses.  "Top secrets" are 12 tips for staying organized and making the most of your research efforts.  "Off the grid" reminds us that only perhaps a third of the records that are relevant to our ancestors' lives are digitized, and suggests where to look for the rest.
PS A reminder that Lisa Louise Cooke hosts Family Tree podcasts available free on ITunes.

Internet genealogy (June/July 2018) also emphasizes sleuthing.  "Inklings, hunches, and sneaking suspicions" suggests ways to harness our intuition in service of our research.  "Crowdsourcing" explains how important this tool has become for getting records indexed.  Scottish tax rolls can be an important substitute for census records.  A fire in 1922 destroyed hundreds of years of records in Dublin, but "Beyond 2022" seeks to recreate much of the missing information online in time for the 100th anniversary of the fire.  Reviews are offered of Scrivener 3 for Mac, TSOLife, and Genlighten.

Received at the library

The cover of the May/June 2018 issue of Your genealogy today portrays a young woman with shocked expression reading a newspaper over the caption "Family SCANDAL in the headlines." Has this happened to you??  The author of the article ironically discovered a tale of murder, adultery and military desertion after he published a family history and had heard nary a hint of the incident from the many relatives interviewed, including the perpetrator.  "The house that once was" tells a tale of researching a stately family home in Toronto and thereby shedding light on the author's great-grandfather's life.  "Follow the money" has interesting tips for research in lesser-utilized records such as work applications, patent applications, and social worker reports, and "Bank checks and genealogy" continues the money theme.  Other articles cover North Carolina records, the Irish in Victorian England, and how you might determine the religion of your forebears.

The Essex Genealogist for May 2018 carries the transcript of an extensive presentation by Mary Ellen Grogan on "Online resources for Irish Genealogy."  Although now two years old, the information looks useful and details how many more Irish records are available than in the past.

The history of the Jewish Genealogical Society of Greater Boston is reviewed in the April 2018 issue of Mass-Pocha.  Evolving from a small study group formed in 1982, the Society now boasts over 600 members, publishes a lively journal, utilizes social media, and hosts frequent programs.

Received at the Library

While we probably are all experienced in using Ancestry.com, the cover story in Internet genealogy (Feb./March 2018) shares ways to find hidden treasures.  To cite just one example, were you aware that Ancestry contains lots of databases that don't include personal names (think the Sears Roebuck catalogs, or postcards)?  Ten interesting examples of databases that aren't traditional genealogy data are listed.  In "At your service: the generous genealogist" Sue Lisk recommends ways to help others that will expand your skills and horizons, such as mentoring other family historians, transcribing or indexing records, documenting family stories or grave sites.  "Do you have lost Irish ancestors?" centers around researching emigration from Cobh, the deepwater port for Cork City, from which about half of Ireland's emigrants departed.  George Morgan (co-founder of the Genealogy Guys Podcast) is interviewed about his work with the Florida History and Genealogy Library to digitize items from their collections.  "Digital Library on American Slavery" focuses on but goes beyond North Carolina, and includes the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade Database.  Check out the National Archives Virtual Genealogy Fair, an online conference featuring NARA records since 1913, just one of the internet resources mentioned in "Net Notes" in this issue.

In Your genealogy today (March/April 2018) "Hints from Houdini" offers 5 techniques to improve your research that take inspiration from the famous magician: be imaginative, confident, skeptical, resilient, and focus on the women!  Joe Grandinetti makes some great finds in Ireland tracing his mother's lineage in "Return to your sources."  In "Electricity and family history" we are reminded that something we take so much for granted today was a common feature of our ancestors' lives only with the 20th century.  Using North Carolina as a case study, Diane Richards discusses the intricacies and eccentricities of state records, and how history affects them. Another article covers researching Scots-Irish ancestors in 18th-century Virginia..